Who funds the political parties…. It is the general public only

Who funds the political parties…. It is general public only

In a democracy, the political parties and the people, both are the stakeholders. Through election process, the winning candidates of the political parties form the government. It does not mean that the government is formed only by the majority party but the remaining parties, the so called oppositions too are the part of the government, otherwise, if they don’t have any role in government, they should sit outside the parliament and state assemblies and should not claim any salary and perks. Since the political parties and the people are the stakeholders, the government (meaning thereby all the political parties collectively) must ensure that it’s actions are always in the interest of general public and total transparency is maintained in their funding and expenses.

Alas, this is not the case!

The political parties need money to perform their various activities like election campaigning, advertising and publicity, organizing rallies, meetings, travels, salaries  and running the party show like a corporate house. It has also said that the political parties also resort to distribution of freebies and sometimes even hard cash illegally to influence the voters in it’s favour. From where the money comes to the political parties for all these expenses? Ultimately, the real source of the money can be traced to the pockets of general public only. The donations from corporate houses are nothing but money earned from the public by doing business. The donations by the party members and general public are also ultimately national wealth earned from the public only. The corporate donations also give rise to crony capitalism influencing government policies in its favour and earning profits, again from public only.

It is also said that the major source of political funding is black money and no political parties is left untouched by it. The trail of black money can also be traced back to the people’s legitimate money only. As per various reports, it is said that more than 80% of funding of major political parties comes from unknown sources. The present law permits political parties to collect small contribution up to an Rs 20,000 from anyone without asking for the particulars of the donor. If one wants to donate Rupees one lac to a political party, he/she can easily donate it by splitting the amount in five Rs. 20,000/- sums and donate as an unknown person. The party need not maintain any details of the donor. (However, ironically in recent demonetization drive, people were asked to record their identity proof to exchange their own old two thousand Rupees with new notes).

Why the governments, the present as well as pervious ones and all the political parties collectively adopt double standards? They form one set of laws for general public and another set of law for political parties. The present demonetization drive of government banning Rs. 500/- and Rs. 1000/- notes to eradicate the black money has been generally welcomed by the public in spite of hardship of standing in ques and even with some unfortunate deaths. In spite of this, the opposition parties are also playing politics and opposing the government’s move of demonetization but are silent on their own funding through black economy. Until and unless these loopholes in political funding are not plugged, no drive will be successful in eliminating the black money economy totally. Therefore, the present government must take at least the following action if they are really sincere and interested in eliminating black money from the Indian economic system;

1.     Implement laws to ensure 100% transparency in political funding and expenses including submission of timely audited accounts to Election Commission.

The sources of all small or big contributions, even if it is rupees one has to be declared.  

2.     People are encouraged for digital transactions whereas political parties will gladly accept upto Rs. 20,000/- in cash from an unknown source. This is to be stopped.

·       Implement laws to ban any cash transaction donations as well as expenditures and ensure it through digital transactions only.

·       Details of all donations (even if it is one Rupee) and expenses are to be maintained online on their party websites.

3.     Implement laws to bring all political parties under RTI.